I think I´ve hit my maximum on air, http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5993574, 1220/1700@1,2V, after that it doesnt matter what voltage I give, it gives artifacts, not sure if its temperature or silicon related, but according to GPU-z, the real load voltage is not much higher at 1,3V than it is at 1,2V, not sure if it throttles or what but after Vdroop the load voltage stays in the 1,15-1,19V area even at 1,3V so yeah.

Maybe I need to exploit my geographical location and drag my PC outside on the balcony and let that cold winter air do its trick

I think I´ve hit my maximum on air, http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5993574, 1220/1700@1,2V, after that it doesnt matter what voltage I give, it gives artifacts, not sure if its temperature or silicon related, but according to GPU-z, the real load voltage is not much higher at 1,3V than it is at 1,2V, not sure if it throttles or what but after Vdroop the load voltage stays in the 1,15-1,19V area even at 1,3V so yeah.

Maybe I need to exploit my geographical location and drag my PC outside on the balcony and let that cold winter air do its trick

my 2nd 7970 is like that after 1150 i cant get anything faster stable with any amount of volts.

I replaced the crappy Arctic glue with Zalman Thermal Adhesive and somehow when I powered my rig up again the single VRM in the back of the PCB near the I/O ports that's also cooled with the stock cooler and was always cooled by a sink with Arctic glue blew out.

No idea why but the PC wouldn't power up at first so I switched PCI-E slot and then it did power up but in a plume of electrical smoke and the card has never lived again since. I can't see any physical damage and I know a reasonable amount of electronics.

How does the cooler look--any evidence of burns? I fried a 4870 years ago by accidentally severing one the traces on its pcb.

Just to be thorough, have you tried another graphics card (preferably an el cheapo one) in the PCIe slots you used? Perhaps there's an issue with your mb. I've seen where shorted traces around the PCIe slots can cause some very strange problems with expansion cards. Unlikely cause but certainly not impossible.

Perhaps the pics from these may help. I wish I could locate a schematic for you, but much of those are under protection from various patents (my brother's a patent lawyer).

AMD delayed the rlease of the 8xxx series to gocus on getting thier drivers for the 7xxx series up to par. i think this is the reason why but anyway they have delayed release until 2014 probably first quater.

Nice! Extends the life of our cards. Might try crossfire if this is true.

AMD delayed the rlease of the 8xxx series to gocus on getting thier drivers for the 7xxx series up to par. i think this is the reason why but anyway they have delayed release until 2014 probably first quater.

But AMD also stated that is was a false rumor and they do in fact plan to release new cards this year.